Temperature value vs. resolution

In brief, the temperature value (also called B factor) for an atom in a crystallographic model is a measure of the uncertainty of the position of that atom. (For more, see Temperature value.) The resolution is an average measure of the uncertainty for all atoms in the model. Results (below) from a very small sample suggest that the average temperature values of models are positively correlated with their resolutions.

See also Temperature color schemes.

Summary
Caution: The following results are based on very small samples of 7-8 PDB files, excluding a few cases that appeared to be outliers (see details below). The median resolution in the Protein Data Bank is 2.19 &Aring; (on June 27, 2011).

1.4 &Aring;ngstroms Resolution
Resolution 1.4 &Aring;ngstroms Min/Av/Max: Temperature values. Examples selected for low or high R/Rfree.

2.0 &Aring;ngstroms Resolution
2.19 &Aring;ngstroms is the median resolution in the Protein Data Bank as of June 27, 2011.

Resolution 2.0 &Aring;ngstroms Min/Av/Max: Temperature values. Examples selected for low or high R/Rfree.

3.5 &Aring;ngstroms Resolution
Resolution 3.5 &Aring;ngstroms Min/Av/Max: Temperature values. Examples selected for low or high R/Rfree. The median free R for resolution 3.5 &Aring; is 0.29 (June, 2011).

Methods
At Temperature color schemes is a Jmol script that reports the min/av/max temperature values in a PDB file. These values can also be reported with the following commands: where {*} means "all atoms".
 * print {*}.temperature.min
 * print {*}.temperature
 * print {*}.temperature.max